Le Pen’s far-right party set to join Orban’s new EU group

Marine Le Pen’s far-right party is teaming up with Italy’s League in the new “Patriots for Europe” group, founded by Hungary’s Viktor Orban, which is set to become the third-largest faction in the European parliament, News.Az reports citing Financial Times.

With 30 MEPs from France’s Rassemblement National, and eight European lawmakers from Matteo Salvini’s League, the new group is on track to overtake Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).

“Today, after long work, the large Patriots group is born, together with the League in Brussels, which will be decisive in changing the future of Europe,” Salvini, Italy’s deputy premier, said on the social media platform X.
Salvini teaming up with Orbán, who prompted outcry among EU and Nato allies last week when he visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow, is a snub to Meloni, who has been a steadfast supporter of Ukraine and critic of the Russian president.

The Patriots were founded by Austria’s far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) and Orban, whose spokesperson on Monday said Le Pen’s RN had joined the new group. Two other people involved in the group confirmed the French move, though Le Pen has not yet made any public comment on her decision.

It was set to hold its inaugural meeting in the European parliament on Monday afternoon.

The group seeks to cut immigration, repatriate powers from Brussels to national governments and end the war in Ukraine despite Kyiv’s warning that any peace talks at this point would amount to its capitulation on Moscow’s terms.

News.Az